Olivia Cunning - Double Time

“You’ll be destroyed by the tabloids.”

“We know you’re in this for the music, Reagan, and so are we, but… we kind of have this reputation of…”

“Looking gorgeous,” Reagan said flatly.

“If you don’t want to be a part of that, it’s okay, just know that you’re going to hear about it,” Max said.

“Remember that time Dare cut his hair?” Logan said. “You would have thought it was a national emergency.”

“I’ll think about it,” Reagan said. If she didn’t get a makeover, she was going to end up the frog in a group of princes. Just freaking wonderful.

“We also think you might need a personal bodyguard,” Steve said. “When our fans see you…” He produced a low growl that made Reagan feel like willing prey.

“A bodyguard?” she managed to say.

“We have security. They’re just not used to keeping too close an eye out for one individual. We wouldn’t want you to get hurt.”

She lowered her chin and gave them all her frostiest look. “Look here, guys. I’m not some delicate flower. I’ve been in my share of mosh pits.”

“We wouldn’t want you to get hurt,” Dare repeated. “It would put our minds at ease.”

She scrubbed her face with both hands knowing she was going to cave. “Fine. I know someone who can guard my body.”

“You know someone?”

“Yeah, my roommate is in security. As overprotective as he is, he’ll totally get off on it.” Having her best friend, Ethan, on tour with her would be fun. He’d help ease her nerves as well as protect her body.

“So you’re signing on with us?”

“Fuck yeah, I am.”

And then she was going to celebrate in a hot tub with Trey Mills.

Trey leaned back against the edge of the hot tub and closed his eyes. He wondered if Reagan would actually stay true to her word or if she’d back out of their bargain. He couldn’t quite figure her out. It unsettled him a little. He liked it a bit too much.

An excited squeal grew in pitch and volume from the hall in the house. Trey’s eyes snapped open and, through the ballroom windows, he watched Reagan sprint down the hall and into the changing rooms that led to the pool area. She stopped beside the hot tub and shook a piece of paper as if it were a winning lottery ticket. “A one-year contract with chance of renewal,” she yelled.

“Awesome.”

“Money. More money than I could make in ten years.”

“Exodus End is loaded.”

Her gleeful smile faltered. “You don’t care. You don’t even know me.” She pulled out a cell phone and pushed a button before jabbering into it at a million miles a minute. “Ethan. Ethan. Listen. I won the contest and—Yeah, yeah, I won. I just signed a contract with Exodus End. I’m going to be their rhythm guitarist on this year’s tour.” She paused while whoever Ethan was responded. “Yes, you told me so. You can gloat later.” Trey should have known a woman like Reagan would be taken. He started to climb out of the hot tub. Reagan’s eyes widened and she darted around the tub to push him back in. “Stay,” she said.

Trey laughed and stood in the roiling water with his hands on both naked hips. Oh well. So he couldn’t fuck her. He could still hang out with her as a friend. He liked her already. She was interesting. Different. Hot as hell. A great kisser. Why would she kiss him like that if she had a boyfriend?

“Do you want a job?” she said into her phone. “They want me to hire a personal bodyguard. You’d have to come on tour with me.” She rolled her eyes. “No, that’s not why. Just think about it, okay? It pays a lot, benefits and everything, but I can’t talk right now. I’ve got a date in a hot tub with Trey Mills.”

Date?

Reagan disconnected the call. She kissed her contract and then headed back into the changing room.

Now where was she going? Trey shook his head and returned to his seat in the hot tub. Reagan came back a moment later in her hot pink panties and white tank top. Okay, that was totally unfair. He couldn’t be expected to think of her as a friend in that outfit. He couldn’t think at all when he noticed the twin bumps of her nipples straining against her top.

“I didn’t wear a bra today so I’ll have to wear my shirt in the hot tub,” she said when she noticed him ogling her. “Maybe I should just go topless.”

He couldn’t find words. He was too busy trying to register hers. She stepped in the hot tub and the water concealed her shapely legs from view. Damn, he was hard as granite already. If she went topless…

“You’re right. I’m being silly,” she said. “It’s not like you’ve never seen a pair of tits before. Am I right? Mine aren’t even that great.”

Before he had the chance to confirm or deny her assumption, Reagan grabbed the hem of her shirt and peeled it off over her head. Her beautiful breasts rose and fell as she removed the tank top and threw it on the side of the hot tub. A grunt of protest escaped Trey as she sank into the water and hid those small globes of flesh with their tempting pink tips from view. He rubbed his tongue against the ridge of his upper teeth to curtail the urge to flick it over her nipples. Despite what she claimed, her breasts were perfect and he very much wanted to show her just how great he thought they were. Reagan sat beside him, within arm’s reach, but not touching him. And while he figured he could probably pounce on her now and get down to business, something stopped him. He wanted to talk to her even more than he wanted to fuck her. Very bizarre. Mostly because he really, really wanted to fuck her.

“Dare said that Brian had a baby this morning,” she said.

“Yeah, I never thought Brian would ever be able to push it out through such a little hole. It was fuckin’ brutal.”

She laughed and splashed water at him. “You know what I mean. His wife had a baby. Boy or girl?”

Trey couldn’t help but smile. He kind of wanted to hold the little guy again already. “Boy.”

“Have you seen him?”

“Yeah, I was there when he was born.” He purposely left out the fainting part. “He looks like his father.”

“Niiiice,” she said.

Trey laughed. “Got a thing for Sinclair?”

“Oh my God, the man is delicious.”

Couldn’t argue with that. Trey happened to agree.

“When I said my band broke up over a kid, I didn’t mean that Sinners would break up.”

She touched his arm and that electric sensation he’d felt earlier snaked across his skin again.

“Brian won’t let us down,” Trey said. “Still, things are… changing.”

“Is that bad?”

“In some ways, yeah, but in others…” Trey sighed. “I guess things can’t stay the same forever.”

“Thank God,” she said. Her grayish-blue eyes turned skyward. “I thought I was going to be serving coffee for the rest of my life.”

“Is that what you do for a living?”

“Pssh, no. I’m the rhythm guitarist for fucking Exodus End. Don’t you know anything?”

She tilted her head at him and shook her head. She was so genuinely beautiful it took his breath away. He grinned. “Congratulations. How long have you been playing?”

“Three years.”

Trey almost swallowed his tongue. “You learned to play like that in three years?”

“I played cello before I picked up the guitar, but yeah.”

“What are you—some kind of prodigy?”

She shrugged. “I’ve won a contest or two.”

“Do you still play cello?”

“I played for my dad, not myself. He’s a music teacher. He started me on violin young, but as soon as I could hold a cello properly I switched.”

“Was he strict?”

She laughed. “Not exactly. I just liked to make him happy. There wasn’t much joy in his life after my mom divorced him. He still has all the programs, certificates, ribbons, and trophies from my competitions hanging all over his den. I need to call him and let him know I’m going on tour with Exodus End.” She laughed. “He’s so going to hate it.”

“I’d think it would make him proud.”

She talked out of the side of her mouth as if disclosing a great secret. “He despises rock ’n’ roll. It led to the great rebellion of my teen years and me moving out here to Los Angeles on my twenty-first birthday. Growing up, he wouldn’t let me listen to anything but classical music.”

“My mom was the same way but with folk music.” Trey attempted to suppress a shudder. He still had nightmares about being forced to play “Kumbaya” for all eternity in his personal hell.

“How long have you been playing?” she asked.

He was almost embarrassed to say. “Uh, fifteen years or so.” More like eighteen, but who was counting?

“I love your sound,” she said. “You complement Brian as if he was your soul mate.”

“And you play just like him.”

She blushed. Damn, he wanted to kiss her again. She was tough for a woman, yet there was something sweet about her. The combination stirred something within him. The fact that she played guitar like the man he’d loved for over a decade stirred him even more.

“Who’s Ethan?” he asked. If she said he was her boyfriend, Trey was going to break his own rule about interfering in other people’s relationships. He wanted this woman. His typical take-em-or-leave-em feelings for the opposite sex did not apply in this case.

“My best friend,” she said.

“Only friends?” Messing up a romantic relationship where the partners were best friends would bother him even more, but he’d still give it a go because there was something unique about this woman. Something he wanted to identify, to get to know, to understand.

“Well, we used to date,” she said, “but… uh, let’s just say I wasn’t enough for him.”

Not enough for him? Was the guy a moron? “You’re kidding, right?”

“Ethan’s great. Really. Too bad he likes men. I caught him fucking some guy in my shower. Talk about a shock to the system. Especially since I’d stripped off all my clothes to join him.”

Trey lowered his eyes. He wondered if homosexuality bothered her. He tended to be very open about his bisexual nature, but he’d sworn off men that morning, so it was no longer applicable. Right? Somehow he didn’t think that line of logic would fly with Reagan, but what she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her.

“You aren’t some kind of homophobe, are you?” she asked.

Trey laughed and lifted his gaze to meet her questioning eyes. “Uh, no,” he said. “Not at all.”

“Good. What happens in a person’s bedroom is no one’s business but his own. It would have been nice to have some sort of warning though. I had absolutely no clue that he was gay. We used to go at it like rabbits.” She scowled and a distant look settled over her even features. That guy, Ethan, had really hurt her. Trey could tell. Yet, somehow she’d forgiven him enough to continue to be friends with him. She must be fairly open-minded about such things. He hoped.

“So you asked this guy, Ethan, to be your bodyguard?”

She smiled at him. “Yeah, he’d do a good job. He’s very protective of me. Maybe a little too protective. He keeps scaring away my boyfriends.”

“Do you have a boyfriend now?”

She looked up him. “Do you think I’d let you kiss me if I had a boyfriend?”

There were plenty of women out there who’d let him kiss them (and more) with their boyfriends watching. “I don’t know you well enough to say.”

“I wouldn’t.”

He believed her.

“Do you have a girlfriend?” she asked.

“Do you think I’d get into a hot tub naked with you if I did?”

“Yes.”

He laughed. “I don’t have a girlfriend. I’m not really the commitment type.”

“What type are you?”

“The just-looking-for-a-good-time type.”

“That’s too bad.”

His heart sank. He wasn’t sure why. Usually if someone wasn’t interested he just blew it off. He ducked his head and lifted his gaze to meet her eyes. “Maybe you could change my mind.”

She laughed. “Does that line actually work?”

He’d never thought to use it before. Probably because it would have complicated things. He didn’t like complications. He wasn’t sure what had changed since this morning to make him crave a few complications. As long as they involved Reagan Elliot. “That wasn’t a line,” he said.

“I’m not buying it, Mills.”

He leaned close to her ear and she stiffened. He waited until goose bumps rose along her neck and shoulder before he spoke in his well-practiced seductive voice. “You know what you need?” She shivered and Trey leaned an inch closer so his warm breath would caress the damp skin just below her ear. “A hard, slow fuck against a wall.”